Economic essays

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753623200

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136107

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Economic essays

Place of publication:: New York

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: viii, 368 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

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Title:: The farmers' indemnity / Alvin S. Johnson

Collection:: Economics Books

216 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK The American farm population slightly exceeds thirty millions. The population of Germany is nearly twice as great—over sixty millions. The value of American farm property is about sixty billions. Exactly what the capital wealth of Germany is at the present moment no one can say. It was nearly a hundred billion dollars before the war. The loss of shipping and foreign invest- ments, together with property losses in ceded territories, the deterioration of lands, industrial plants, railways, ete., could not have impaired the physical property of the nation by so much as one-half. But we will say that the impairment amounted to fifty per cent. World values stand about fifty per cent above the pre- war level. The capital value of German property ought there- fore to be at least seventy-five billions. This figure may be challenged as too high. An actual inventory of German property, taken at its current value, would probably tall well short of seventy-five billions. Capital values, as every- one knows, fluctuate widely with the mood of the investing public. A piece of property which yields a net income of a thousand dollars may be valued at ten thousand dollars, when the prevailing mood is sober and pessimistic. It may be valued at twenty thousand dollars when the prevailing mood is buoyant and over sanguine. The Germans have been sunk in depression and discouragement ever since the war, and place a low capital value on their property. The American farmer puts his capital values high. In the end, however, what counts in the measure- ment of capital is the capacity to yield income. From this point of view the German capital certainly exceeds that of the American farmer, and probably at least in the ratio of 75 to 60. Before the war the German national income was about ten billions of dollars. What it is now nobody can say with certainty. And even if we could make a precise compilation of money incomes actually received it would mean little, since the price structure in Germany has not recovered entirely from the distor- tion brought about by monetary inflation. There is good reason for believing, however, that the German consumer commands, on the average, at least two-thirds of the goods he enjoyed before the war, or the value, in pre-war money terms, of six and two- thirds billions. In terms of world prices of today, the value would again be nearly ten billions. The aggregate income of the American farmers is estimated by

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